A group of 35 Democratic Senators have sent a letter to Mick Mulvaney and Leandra English urging the CFPB to continue to publicly disclose consumer complaint information.

In remarks last month at an American Bankers Association conference, CFPB Acting Director Mick Mulvaney is reported to have strongly criticized the CFPB’s policy of publicly disclosing consumer complaint information and suggested that the policy is likely to be discontinued.  Mr. Mulvaney is reported to have said that while the CFPB will maintain the consumer complaint database as required by Dodd-Frank, he did not see any legal requirement for the CFPB “to run a Yelp for financial services sponsored by the federal government.”

In their letter, the Senators assert that consumers would be hurt by the elimination of public access to the database.  They ask the CFPB to provide, if a decision is made to end public access, “an explanation of any proposed changes, a detailed accounting of your justification, and a copy of any analysis you undertook in support of your decision.”

The CFPB has issued a request for information that seeks comment on potential changes to its practices for the public reporting of consumer complaint information.  Comments on the RFI are due by June 4.